Rocket 02

Gillman/Ghost Ship/1
Ian Gillman Word Count: 8300
Ghost Ship
By Ian Gillman
"This is like watching grass grow." sighed Captain
John "Rocket" Robinson.
"I agree." replied Sergeant Richard "Dick" Clari. Since the
Interplanetary Operations division of the Earth Police
Force was formed ten months ago there had been one really
exciting case, the rest of the time was taken up with
paperwork and escort missions like the one Rocket and Dick
were currently involved with. Escorting a freighter
containing expensive scientific equipment from the
manufacturer on Mars to the scientific base on
Saturn/Pandora.
Ever since the early days of the solar system
colonization plan it was found that a naming system needed
to be used that did not require a degree in astronomy. It
was decided to use the name of the major planet when
talking about one of its moons to enable the average person
to understand where a particular moon was in the solar
system.
"I am picking something up on the radar, it appears to
be a spaceship." said Dick while concentrating hard on the
fuzzy blob that had just appeared on the side of the radar
scope. "It appears to be heading this way, they have no
transponder information, shall I try to get them on the
radio?".
"That sounds like a good idea, see if you can work out how
close they will come to the convoy."
"OK" Dick turned back to the console and picked up the
radio.
"SP200C to unidentified spacecraft traveling on a vector of
3,2,2 please identify yourself." The radio remained silent
for nearly a minute during which time Dick was busy
calculating movement vectors to work out if they were on a
collision course or not.

"This is Earth Police Force Interplanetary Operations ship
SP200C to unidentified spacecraft on vector 3,2,2
approaching convoy, identify yourself." said Dick becoming
a little more official. Once again the radio remained
silent. Dick finished the calculations and called again,
this time he sounded more threatening and forceful. While
he was waiting for a reply he spoke to Rocket.
"They are on a collision course with the convoy. I can't
predict if they will hit anybody but they will pass very
close to us."
"Hmm, OK, call the rest of the convoy and tell them to be
on the lookout for this ship. Tell them to prepare to
execute emergency maneuvers."
"Yes Sir."
"Then tell the rest of the escorts to stay with the convoy,
we are going to go and have a look at that ship." he added.
"She's coming within visual range now." said Rocket as
he eased back on the throttle and activated the braking
rockets. "It looks like they might be in trouble, they have
no lights and they seem to be doing a slow tumble."
"They could also be smugglers trying to convince us they
are a lump of rock." said Dick.

"Get them on the radio, I can see their registration number
through the binoculars, tell them we know they are a
spaceship."
"SP200C to TK421, SP200C to TK421, come in TK421." The
radio remained silent, whoever was on board the spacecraft
clearly was not going to talk.
"Get the convoy on the radio Dick, tell them to carry on to
Saturn/Pandora, we are going to check this ship out and, if
possible, get on board, I am curious to know what is going
on."
Rocket maneuvered the ship so that it was traveling
alongside the mysterious craft. They had passed through the
convoy a few minutes earlier and, due to the advanced
warning, had not had any problems.
"Grappling hooks attached." said Dick, a little
redundantly, the whole ship started to slowly tumble,
obeying the law of the conservation of angular momentum.
"OK, Dick, let's see who s on board." Rocket started
towards the airlock. Due to the tumbling of the other ship
Rocket could not align the airlocks and therefore it was
necessary to perform a space walk to get inside the other
ship. Rocket worked his way round to the airlock on the
other ship and operated the controls. Nothing happened,

clearly the airlock had been powered down which, coupled
with the lack of lighting, suggested that the entire ship
had lost power. After fiddling for a couple of minutes
Rocket decided to operate the airlock manually and broke
open the emergency release box next to the controls.
"Rocket, I have found the records on this ship in the Earth
registration files. It is registered to a Simon Jones, 269
Wichita Way, Topeka, Kansas, USA, Earth. I am pulling his
records now, they should be here soon. The ships last known
flight plan was from Mars to Jupiter/Europa two weeks ago
but it never arrived."
"Well, they ended up a little off course out here between
Jupiter and Saturn." replied Rocket while pumping the
handle up and down to open the outer airlock door. "I am
inside the airlock now, I will hand crank the outer door
closed and then try to equalize the pressure." Rocket
closed the outer door and then tried the inner door
controls but they were dead as well. Breaking open the
emergency control system Rocket opened a valve to equalize
the pressure and then proceeded to hand crank the inner
door open.
The inside of the spaceship looked like it had been a
rough ride for the occupants who lay dead in their seats.
Ship construction manuals and tools floated around the
cabin leaving the impression that the occupants had been
still alive when they lost power and they had tried to fix
the problem until they died. One book caught Rockets
attention, it had a bright purple cover which signified it
was the ships log.
On their way back to Jupiter/Ganymede with the mystery
ship in tow Dick had time to read the ships log that Rocket
had found floating in the cabin.
"Up until the last few days of their life the log entries
appear to be normal, in fact, it is a very well kept log.
The entry for a week last Thursday is where it starts to
get interesting, let me read it to you."
Thursday
Routine checks were performed, no anomalies found.
On course and on time according to the flight plan.
Nothing else to report.
Thursday additional.
The ship has lost all power, lighting and heating are not
working and neither of the backup generators are
operational, I am writing this by flashlight. We are slowly

tumbling out of the Jupiter system and into deep space, we
have tried everything we can think of to revive the ship.
It all started a couple of hours ago as we were passing
close to Jupiter/Elara. Everything was fine until the Ghost
Ship arrived, it was the "Michaelova", we could see the
name on the side of the ship. The ship appeared out of
nowhere, at first we thought it was one of the luxury
liners heading for Saturn until we saw its name. All of the
lights were on and we could see people moving around inside
the ship. We had heard rumors of the ghost ship for months
but did not believe them. Just as we tried to get on the
radio to contact someone the whole ship went dead. Nothing
electrical was working and that is the position we still
find ourselves in now, several hours after the encounter.
"The rest of the logbook goes on to describe how they
tried to get the ship working again but it appeared as if
every electrical component on board had been fried, even
the ones that were switched off at the time of the
encounter." concluded Dick.
The rocket blasted away from the launch pad, Rocket
flew the spaceship up and through the thin atmosphere of
Jupiter/Ganymede and out into space.

"Setting a course for Jupiter/Elara." said Rocket.
"Roger that." replied Dick, "All systems normal."
The spaceship turned and headed towards Elara, one of
Jupiter’s outer moons and the last known position of the
ghost ship. Dick rechecked the equipment they had hastily
loaded onboard. There were several pieces of highly
sensitive radio detection gear, a Geiger counter and both
IR and UV goggles.
Rocket slowed the ship as they entered the vicinity of
Jupiter/Elara and they both got into their spacesuits as a
safety precaution. Looking out of the cockpit they could
see the small moon in the distance against a background of
shining, unblinking stars.
"The instruments show nothing out of the ordinary." said
Dick while examining the dials and gauges. What about the
IR or UV goggles, can you see anything through those yet?"
"No, just the same old background of stars and Elara in the
distance. Its strange but, at the highest magnification I
can see a small hot spot on the surface of Elara."
"That's strange, the data on the moon is incomplete but it
does show no volcanic activity or internal heating in
general. I wonder what that hot spot is?"

"Let's investigate, it may help clear up this case." Rocket
opened the throttle and took the ship closer to the moon.
"We are running into a clump of rocks just ahead, be
careful." called Dick as he studied the radar screen.
"Whoa!" shouted Rocket as the spaceship lurched to one
side, "What was that?"
"One of those rocks just started moving and the radio
detectors have gone wild. I think that's a ship and a big
one at that."
Rocket brought the ship into a hard turn with one hand and
armed the lasers with the other.
"They are hitting us with a big pulse of electromagnetic
radiation, it's a good job we are shielded." said Dick
while trying to strap himself into his chair.
Rocket swung the nose of the ship round until it was
pointing in the general direction of the mystery craft. The
sight that confronted him almost took his breath away. In
front of them, no more than a few miles away, was a large,
old style, luxury liner. All of the lights were on, every
cabin light and every deck light. The whole ship seemed to
glow as it hung in space.
"They are hitting us with another pulse, this one is more
powerful than the last one."

Rocket pushed the throttles to their maximum and closed on
the huge ship. As he approached he fired two laser blasts
across their bows, the interplanetary signal to stop. The
huge ship continued to turn as if it were trying to get
closer to Rocket and Dick. As they raced past the hull of
the ship Rocket could see several hatches opening and as
they streaked away from the ship they were chased by a hail
of laser fire. Rocket cut the throttle and hauled the ship
round in a tight arc before giving maximum power to the
engines again. This time their run towards the ship was met
by laser fire from several turrets located on the main
deck. Rocket returned fire putting two of them out of
commission and this time as they streaked past the hull he
got a chance to read the nameplate.
"It's the Michaelova and they do not appear to be friendly."
Unfortunately, this time Rocket cut it just a bit too fine
and clipped part of the superstructure of the huge vessel.
The ship lurched and altered course slightly taking them
right over the top of one of the laser cannons. At that
range even a novice gunner could not miss and both Rocket
and Dick felt the laser blast tear into their ship. The
sound was like tearing metal and the whole ship shuddered.
Rocket tried to escape the laser fire by pulling another
tight turn. This time the strain proved too much for the
damaged ship and half of one of the wings used for
atmospheric flight came off accompanied by a loud
screeching noise. Alarms went off inside the cockpit, the
cabin pressure fell instantly and several gauges on the
control panel fell to zero. the ship stopped responding to
the controls and Rocket had only seconds to react. Reaching
downwards he yelled "Eject." at the top of his lungs and
pulled the cord below his seat. Dick heard Rockets cry and
reached down to pull his own cord.
Rocket looked around him and saw the large ship turn
and head for the moon. He noticed that his own ship had
managed to hit the liner about halfway down the ship on one
side. There were sparks and a very bright light coming from
the hole made by the smaller ship.
"Dick, Dick, come in Dick." called Rocket over the small
emergency radio in his suit but there was no answer.
Dick felt the ship lurch as he reached down for the
ejection handle but his fingers never touched it, his body
was thrown forward against the seatbelt. The cabin was
filled with a crashing, screeching noise as Dicks ship made
contact with the liner. Fortunately the ship hit the liner
square on with one of the cabins and at that point, due to

having a window, the hull was relatively thin. The nosecone
and cabin of Dicks ship tore through the hull of the liner
and the ship came to rest partway through the internal wall
between the cabin and the corridor. Alarms went off
throughout the liner and bulkheads closed to seal off the
damaged section. By the time Dick awoke and had got his
bearings he was looking at three figures clad in spacesuits
with nasty looking guns pointing at him. They motioned for
him to follow them and, once he had climbed out of the
wreckage, he proceeded to do so. He was sandwiched between
the front and second guard as they walked down the hallway
to one of the airtight bulkheads. Once they were all
through the airlock in the bulkhead and on the other side
Dick and the guards took off their spacesuits. There were
more armed guards on the other side, about ten in total,
waiting to take Dick downwards, through the bowels of the
ship. Dick was thrown into a cabin somewhere in the depths
of the ship and the cabin was locked from the outside.
Rocket examined his current predicament. He was
floating towards the moon Elara at an undetermined speed.
His ejection seat had a small but functional rocket motor
and directional thrusters with just enough fuel to get most
people out of trouble and safely rescued. Given the current

lack of instrumentation, going into orbit around Elara was
not an option and turning around and heading back towards
Jupiter was suicide due to a lack of basic supplies such as
oxygen. If he was lucky he might be picked up by a passing
freighter but, considering that Elara was at a point in its
orbit where it did not intersect any major trade routes,
the chances were very slim.
"Nobody," thought Rocket, "has ever made a landing on a
moon using a standard issue ejection seat. But there is
always a first time for everything." Having made up his
mind Rocket decided that it was time to find out how fast
he was traveling and how close he was to the moon. In space
there is little or no depth perception or sense of speed.
By using the maneuvering thrusters and the main engine
Rocket was able to alter his course so that he was heading
for the edge of the little moon instead of the center of
one face. By aiming at the edge he would enter the thin
atmosphere at an angle and, once he was inside the
atmosphere, he would have a better idea of speed and
direction. He turned the main engine at the bottom of the
seat towards the atmosphere and waited.
Dick was escorted by two guards, who carried guns and
said nothing, back up through the liner towards the front

and top of the vessel where the control room was located.
As they approached the doors to the main control room Dick
noticed that the guards started to smarten themselves up,
straightening their clothing and holding their heads up
high. The guards standing on either side of the door
stiffened up.
"What do you want?" asked one of them.
"We have the prisoner, the captain wanted to see him."
"Pass." The guards moved aside and allowed them to pass
through the door. Dick was reminded of an old medieval
court with the way the guards behaved near the control
room. All three people entered the control room and Dicks
eyes were drawn to the large man in the captains chair who
looked a little familiar but he couldn't place him.
"Who are you?" asked the captain in his deep, booming voice.
"Sergeant Richard Clari of Interplanetary Operations."
"What are you doing here?"
Dick remained silent and the man started to look angry but
then suddenly changed his expression to one of amusement.
"Never mind, you will make a good addition to our mining
crew. Put him back in the cabin and get ready for landing."
"Aye Sir." said the guards in unison and it was then that
Dick figured out where he had seen this man before. It was
fifteen years ago when Dick was in the Space Corps. The
mans name was "Jonathan Jones" or "Captain Jones of the
Space Navy" to those who knew him at that time. Dick had
been hitching a ride on a missile ship heading back to
Earth and this man was the captain of that ship. Dick only
met him once and that was while he was walking on one of
the lower decks. The captain had chastised him about the
lower decks being off limits and escorted him back to his
cabin. It was five years later when Dick read a news report
about a captain being charged with drug smuggling that Dick
remembered the incident and the captains name. It turned
out that the captain had been smuggling drugs on board his
ship in the lower sections where not many people go. Only
him and one other member of the crew knew about the drugs.
The captain was given 25 years in prison and a dishonorable
discharge but he escaped after two years and was never seen
again.
"I wonder what he is doing here?" thought Dick as he was
being escorted back to his cabin, "One thing I can say for
certain is that this ship is no ghost."
Rocket felt something tug at the ejection seat, one
light tug followed by another one. He was entering the
atmosphere of the moon and although it was a thin
atmosphere it still had some effect on him. He felt a

slight increase in weight caused by the seat being slowed
by the atmosphere. Another tug, then another one, he
wrestled with the maneuvering thrusters to keep the engine
facing the direction of travel. Rocket could hear a faint
roar through his helmet, the atmosphere was getting a
little thicker and he was traveling at a great velocity
through it. He opened up the main engine and gave a short
burst followed by another short burst and then another in
an attempt to slow himself down. Looking over his shoulder
he could see the ground below him getting closer and
closer. It was difficult to judge distances due to the lack
of atmosphere not providing a haze and the unknown size of
the rock formations below him. Was he looking at a high
mountain range from a high altitude or a low ridge from a
low altitude? He opened up the main engine again, this time
for a long burn. Looking at the fuel gauges he found that
he only had another thirty seconds of fuel remaining. Off
to the left he could see jagged rock formations and the
horizon looking very close. Rocket decided that he would
rather have an empty fuel tank when he landed and not
really knowing how high up he was he decided to open up the
main engine for a final burn. The ejection seat shuddered
as the main engine kicked in and Rocket felt his weight
return as the engine slowed him down. Then just as quickly

as it had started, the engine stopped, he had used up all
his fuel and was now falling towards the surface, an
unknown distance below him, at an unknown speed. Settling
back into the ejection seat he braced for impact and a few
seconds later it happened. The engine cone struck the soft,
dust covered ground first and collapsed absorbing some of
the impact. Next, the chair itself struck the ground and
started to roll over and over coming to rest several yards
away from the main impact site.
As Rocket started to come round he could hear many
voices and he opened his eyes slowly but the light was too
bright.
"Easy does it," said a soft, feminine voice, “you have had
a lucky escape." Rocket felt something soft and cold on his
forehead.
"Drink this." said the voice. Rocket felt a cup to his lips
and he took a small sip. It tasted of water with a nasty
tang to it, a tang that Rocket knew having spent many years
in space, it was the tang that water gets when it has been
recycled too many times.
"I think he's coming round." said the voice to someone
else. Rocket heard the sound of several pairs of feet
moving towards him. It was at this point that Rockets brain

started to function somewhat normally again and he realized
that if he can hear all this noise then he cannot have his
helmet on any more. He was breathing air, but it was a
little stale and cold and he felt a little chilly. Rocket
blinked once, twice and his eyes started to focus a little
better. He was laying on some sort of bench looking up at a
ceiling that looked like the inside of a spaceship.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"You are safe Captain Robinson, you are on Elara, one of
Jupiter’s outer moons."
"Who are you and how do you know who I am?"
"You carry an identification card in your wallet and you
are wearing a police spacesuit and uniform. It didn't take
a genius to read your credentials." Rocket felt a little
stupid at that remark. "We are trying to get off this moon
which is why we are rebuilding this spaceship."
"What are you doing here?"
"I suppose I had better start at the beginning. On the
other side of this moon there is a titanium mining
operation going on. The mining is run by a guy who is
called 'Captain', he and his band of criminals have been
here for a few years now. Some of us have been on this moon
for several years, others have only just arrived, all of us
were captured by the phony ghost ship and brought here to

work. Don't worry, you are not in the mines, we have all
escaped at one time or another and now live here.
"That's quite a story, what do you do for food and oxygen?"
"We have friends still working in the mines that smuggle
things out to us."
"You said it was a titanium mine, that stuff is expensive,
they use it to coat the heat shields used by spacecraft.
How did they find it here?"
"We don't know, all of us arrived after the mine was set
up."
"Well, what are your plans for the future then?"
"We don't really know, we have talked of attacking the
mines and taking them over but we do not have enough people
or weapons for something like that. There was even talk at
one time of getting this ship operational but none of us
know where to begin."
Rocket thought for a moment and then said, "I think I can
help you there."
Meanwhile, back on Earth at Interplanetary Operations
Headquarters, which is a grand name for three offices, one
commander, one secretary and four agents, Chief Gundam was
getting a little anxious.

"Susan," he called to the secretary in the annex, "has
anybody heard anything from Rocket and Dick lately?"
Susan rummaged through some papers on her desk before
replying, "No Sir, nothing for the past 48 hours. Their
last message said that they were approaching the vicinity
of Jupiter/Elara and that they would report back if they
had any more information."
"Well, they have missed two scheduled reporting times, I
think it might be time to find out what is going on. Patch
me through to the Jupiter/Europa police."
"The Captain" looked a little irritated when one of
his subordinates burst into the control room without
waiting to be invited in.
"What is the meaning of this?" shouted the Captain, his
eyes bulging from their sockets and his face turning red
with anger.
"Sir, I thought you should know that we detected another
very small craft following the ghost ship back from the
encounter with the police ship. We believe it was the
ejection seat from the craft that crashed into the ghost
ship."
"Yes I know about that, the pilot and the ejection seat
would have either missed the moon or crash landed somewhere
on the far side and killed its occupant."
"Not quite sir." with those words the captain looked a
little puzzled. "Why not?" he inquired.
"The standard issue police ejection seat has a main
thruster built underneath it with a supply of fuel on board
to get the occupant out of trouble. It is quite possible
for a highly skilled and lucky pilot to use the engine to
slow their descent to such an extent that they could
actually land on this moon. The light gravity and no
atmosphere combine to make such a landing possible."
"Even if he did land, he would not be able to live for
long."
"No but maybe he would live long enough to send a signal to
Europa or one of the other moons, that would bring the
police here."
"Send a patrol out immediately to look for the ejection
seat, use all the data you have available to pinpoint its
place of landing."
"Yes Sir." the subordinated turned on his heels and left
the control room.
#
Things were calm in the crashed spaceship, Rocket and
Joanna, one of the other escaped workers, had been working
on getting the main engine working.
"Rocket, Joanna, come quickly." shouted someone from down
the corridor, "We have a problem.". Rocket and Joanna
rushed towards the main control room of the ship, following
the sounds of the footsteps echoing in front of them. As
they reached the control room they saw people grabbing what
few weapons they had and rushing towards the main door.
"Grab a laser gun, we have company." said the tall man
handing out the weapons, "Some of the guards from the mine
are outside, they have found the ship.".
Joanna and Rocket headed for the main door of the ship and
were met by a hail of laser fire, the guards had found the
entrance and were pinning everybody inside.
"Where is the emergency exit?" shouted Rocket above the
noise of laser bolts exploding against steel bulkheads.
"What emergency exit?" replied Joanna.
"The one that all these ships have in case the main exit is
blocked." Rocket ducked down to avoid a nearby explosion,
"It's probably near the tail, let's go." Rocket stood up,
fired three times through the main exit and then rushed
down the corridor with Joanna in pursuit. A loud explosion
and a wave of hot air followed them round the corner as a

grenade exploded inside the ship. Rocket kept up a fast
pace as he negotiated the maze of corridors that made up
the interior of the ship. Eventually he made it to the rear
of the ship and came up against a wall of wooden crates.
"The door is behind those crates." he shouted to Joanna as
he started to move the heavy boxes. The laser fire and
shouting was getting closer as Rocket and Joanna worked in
the small room. They stacked the wooden crates behind them
to give them some degree of protection. The explosions
crept closer and closer, Rocket and Joanna could hear
people shouting and screaming, they could smell the
explosives and see the occasional flash reflected off the
walls. Eventually they had moved enough boxes to reach the
door mechanism. Rocket reached across a couple of crates
and pulled the handle. The door gave a small bang and blew
itself off its hinges. Rocket and Joanna jumped through the
door and landed at the feet of several guards from the mine.
Dick was working at one of the titanium seams, digging
out lumps of ore and throwing them into a makeshift cart
when he heard a familiar voice complaining about being
pushed. He turned round and saw Rocket accompanied by a
woman and escorted by five guards all walking in his
direction. Dick had to fight with his urge to call out to

Rocket, he was so relieved to know that his partner and
friend was alright but he knew that it would not be good to
let the guards know that they knew each other. Dick noticed
that Rocket was not wearing his uniform and rightly assumed
that the guards did not know who they had.
Once the escorting guards had left Dick pretended to
follow a seam of ore and made his way over to where Rocket
was working.
"Rocket." whispered Dick. Rocket turned his head in
surprise and almost shouted but remembered at the last
minute to keep his voice down.
"Dick, what happened? How did you end up here? What is this
place?" whispered Rocket, full of questions and relief that
Dick was still alive.
The two patrol ships from the Jupiter/Europa police
force approached the small moon of Elara with caution.
Using their powerful search radars they started to scan the
area for any sign of Rocket, Dick or their spaceship.
"I am detecting radar emissions from orbit, we are not
in their target cone yet but it is only a matter of time
before they pick us up sir." reported one of the guards

assigned to look for more ships, "Its frequency and pulse
rate identify it as a class 3 police radar used on long
range scout ships, they are probably from Europa.".
"I will inform the Captain right away, in the meantime keep
track of them."
"Yes sir."
The large ghost ship slowly took off from the surface
of the moon and began to get into orbit around Elara.
"We have to stay on the other side of the moon from the
police ships, Captains orders" said the commander of the
vessel, "We have to stay out of site. The mine is
underground and cannot be spotted from orbit.".
"What's that noise?" asked Rocket as the low rumble
echoed down the tunnel.
"I think the ghost ship is taking off." replied Dick, "They
must have found another ship to capture.". Rocket look
around and noticed that there were less guards than there
were half an hour ago.
"Where did the guards go?" said Rocket.
"I don't know." said Dick, "They have never left us with
less than five guards in the tunnel now I see only two by
the entrance. Something must be happening."

"We have to make our move now." Rocket turned to Joanna and
nodded in the direction of the pile of explosives in the
corner. "When I make my move, grab some explosives, set the
timers for 5 seconds and throw them at the guards." Rocket
then turned to Dick, "When the fireworks start try to get
some of the other miners to rush the guards, with a bit of
luck we can overwhelm them with people. Once we get out of
the tunnel we have to make our way to the nerve center of
this place. Either this Captain guy is on the ship that
took off or he is still down here running the show. Either
way, we need to take control of the radio system and send a
message to the authorities."
The Jupiter/Europa police ships slowly approached the
small moon of Elara, their radar sweeping out in all
directions trying to locate anything that might give a clue
as to the whereabouts of Rocket and Dick.
"Get the defenses ready, Captains orders. If those
ships get too close to the mine or look like they may have
spotted us we will have to take care of them in a hurry."
remarked the officer of the watch on board the ghost ship,
"Ground control will let us know if they have been spotted."
#
Rocket slowly made his way along the rock face,
picking up a large hammer that someone had left laying on
the ground. He nodded to Dick who picked up a pickaxe and
then turned towards the guards.
"Sir, I am picking up some sort of echo from the
surface, it looks like it might be some sort of large cave"
said the young officer in the second police ship.
"They are sweeping us." noted the guard, "But I do not
think they can get a good return on us just yet.
"Now" shouted Rocket as he hurled the hammer in the
direction of one of the guards. Dick threw his pickaxe at
the other guard. Rockets hammer was on target, the guard
seemed to fall in slow motion in the low gravity
environment of the moon. Dicks throw missed its mark as the
guard ducked out of the way and started firing. Rocket
looked across at Joanna who had not moved yet, "Go, get the
explosive now." shouted Rocket. Joanna immediately broke
from the spell she was under and made a dive for the box of
explosives just as the remaining guard fired again. The
laser blasts exploded against the walls of the tunnel,
Rocket and Dick started throwing rocks in the guards

direction and some of the other miners followed suit and
started throwing their own tools and rocks as well. Joanna
reached the box and pulled out one of the timed explosives.
She set the timer for 5 seconds, threw the stick towards
the guard and covered her head.
"The echo I am getting from the large cave shows it to
be oval in shape, almost like it was the entrance to a
mine. It seems just too regular to be natural. I am going
to narrow the radar beam a little more to try and get a
better picture."
"Sir, the radar beam is increasing in intensity, it
looks like they may have an echo from us."
"Stand by to inform the ship that they may have found us."
The stick of explosive landed quite close to the guard
who just stood and stared at it in disbelief for a few
seconds, then he gave it a very hard kick back towards
Rocket, Dick and Joanna. By this time approximately four
and a half of the five seconds had elapsed, the stick
bounced across the floor of the tunnel and came to rest
next to the box of explosive by Joanna’s feet. Joanna,
Rocket and Dick looked at each other and then leaped into
the air away from the box and towards the guard at the
entrance. The explosive detonated sending a searingly hot
shockwave along the tunnel. The air was filled with smoke
and dust and the echo of the explosion.
"What was that?" asked one of the guards in the
control center as he heard a loud noise and felt the floor
shudder beneath him.
"Attention ghost ship, attention ghost ship." said the
guard into the radio, "We are under attack, I say again, we
are under attack"
"Sir there was a flash of light and now a cloud of
dust is emerging from the cave. It looks like there was an
explosion, I am going to investigate it."
The ghost ship started to speed up in its orbit of the
moon, its commander was anxious to get the two small police
ships before they could radio something back to their base.
Rocket lifted his head and peered through the dust,
the rolling echo of the explosion could still be heard up
and down the length of the tunnel. Small rocks and bits of
sand were beginning to fall as the tunnel groaned and began

to shift slightly. Looking around him, Rocket got to his
feet slowly and shook his head, coughing as he did so. He
saw the two guards and a lot of the other prisoners laying
around him either dead or unconscious. Moving towards one
of the guards he reached down and grabbed his gun then,
after getting the other guards gun, he started looking for
Dick and Joanna in the dusty atmosphere.
"This is definitely a man made cave, it is too regular
in shape to be anything else and I am starting to pick up
reflections that are too strong to be...". The police ship
exploded in a ball of light as the missile from the ghost
ship found its mark. Almost immediately the second police
ship with its more experienced police began a high G-force
maneuver designed to shake off any potential attackers. The
missile that had been tracking him struggled to keep the
ship in the center of its sensors. The missile began an
upward curve, chasing its prey. The ship swung through 180
degrees before snapping over and beginning another tight
turn at right angles to the first one. The pilot of the
ship searched frantically for any sign of pursuit. The
threat indicator in his cockpit did not register anything
but the pilot knew that something was out there, he had
seen that type of explosion before. The missile closed

rapidly as the ship changed direction and then began
turning once more in an attempt to keep the ship in its
sights. The on-board computer sensed the range to the ship
and concluded that it was close enough to detonate. A
fraction of a second later the distance between the missile
and the ship started to increase as the ship turned even
tighter than before. The computer decided to detonate the
warhead while the ship was still in range.
Rocket dragged Dick and Joanna to their feet and,
having revived them, gave Dick a gun.
"Quick, to the door." shouted Rocket as he pointed in the
general direction of an access hatch. The three of them ran
to the hatch, opened it and crawled through into a
passageway full of people running around, lights flashing
and a loud siren screaming in their ears. Nobody seemed to
notice them as they made their way through the complex,
everybody seemed to be too concerned for their own safety
to worry about a group of badly dressed people they had
never seen before.
The police ship shuddered from the blast caused by the
nearby missile exploding. The cabin went dark and several
red lights illuminated the otherwise dark control panel. A

siren started sounding in the ears of the pilot and partial
power returned bathing the cockpit in a low light. Some of
the instruments came back on-line, others remained stuck at
either maximum or zero or just stayed dark and silent. The
pilot pulled the ship into a turn and stared at the dark
and silent radar panel.
"Police one to base, police one to base.", the pilot spoke
calmly and clearly into the radio as he stared at the dark
and silent radio panel. The radar panel also remained
lifeless rendering the pilot almost blind and deaf to what
was outside his cockpit. Realizing his situation the pilot
looked out of the cockpit window and began to take in his
surroundings. His first thought was to get his bearings and
he could do that by finding the moon. As he caught sight of
the edge of the moon he noticed an object heading towards
him. In space it is difficult to tell if you are looking at
a large object at a long distance or a small object close
up. A flash of light emerged from the object and missed the
police ship by a number of yards. The pilot of the police
ship decided that the best form of defense is attack and
opened the throttle as far as it would go, charging
headlong into the rapidly approaching ship.
#
"Sir, he is on an attack run." screamed the radar
controller, not sure if his radar was telling him the truth
or not.
"An attack run? That's impossible, check your screen
again." replied the commander.
"He is opening fire!" shouted the officer as the ship
rocked from explosions along its hull. The bridge glowed
brightly for a split second as an explosion appeared just
outside the main window.
"Return fire, bring that ship down." cried the commander as
he ducked behind a control panel.
One of the rear turret gunners heard the cry over the radio
and swiveled his turret round just in time to see the ship
emerge from the other side of the bridge. The ship screamed
past his position at an impossibly low level and nearly
knocked the gun from its mounting. Turning the gun round
and depressing the barrel to its lowest angle the gunner
released a salvo of laser fire towards the police ship.
Rocket, Dick and Joanna approached the door to the
main control room. The guards were still at their posts
making sure that nobody entered the room. Rocket looked at
Dick and whispered,

"Just two of them, you take the one on the left I will take
the one on the right."
Dick barely had time to nod his agreement when Rocket
rounded the corner, raised his weapon and fired twice into
the guard. Dick followed a fraction of a second later and
hit the second guard. Both guards collapsed without having
a chance to return their fire or even seeing who had shot
them. Joanna picked up one of the guards guns and all three
of them approached the door.
The pilot of the police ship knew he had to keep low
to avoid the guns that littered the hull of this ship.
Dodging the superstructure he flew low over a gun and
instantly regretted his decision. Pulling the ship round
into a wide arc he had to climb slightly to avoid a tower
and saw two laser blasts narrowly miss his ship. The third
blast caught his ship right in the middle and broke it in
half just before the fuel ignited turning the high speed
craft into a fireball. The blast wave hit the hull of the
ghost ship and tore a turret gun from its housing. Sirens
blasted through the decks of the ship as large doors closed
to seal off the damaged sections of the hull.
#
Rocket opened the door and ran through into the
control room, Dick and Joanna followed him through the
doorway and moved to the left and to the right of Rocket.
The sight that greeted them was quite unexpected. Instead
of seeing a large number of officers sitting at desks with
the Captain in the middle they found a dark and empty room.
The only light was from the control panels with their
flashing lights. The floor shook and small rocks fell from
the roof, a control panel sparked and fell dark. The radio
was still on and the air was filled with shouting and
sirens from the ship orbiting above.
The flash of light from the moons surface signaled
that a craft was taking off. It was a small craft, capable
of holding only a handful of people and designed for speed.
Inside the craft the Captain and three of his henchmen were
crowded into the cockpit while the pilot entered a new
destination into the computer. The craft climbed upwards,
towards the ghost ship which was surrounded by a cloud of
debris. Several fires could be seen through the windows of
the ship and it was obvious that it was in trouble.
"This is Rocket Robinson calling the Europa police
force, come in Europa.". The radio stayed silent for

several agonizing seconds before a voice was heard coming
from the speaker.
"Unit calling Europa police, please identify yourself and
retransmit message."
Dicks face turned from delight to horror as a section of
the wall caved in and the floor shook once more. Rocket did
not seem to notice as he keyed the microphone. "This is
Captain Rocket Robinson of the Interplanetary Operations
division of the Earth police force. Send reinforcements to
the moon of Elara, we have found...".
The floor buckled under the strain of the now collapsing
roof and walls, Rocket, Dick and Joanna were thrown to the
floor as part of the roof fell down.
"This way." said Dick, pointing to a small door on the
other side of the room marked "Airlock". the three of them
got back on their feet and made their way past the rubble.
The Captains craft approached the ghost ship at a fast
pace, the pilot swerved towards the ship to avoid a large
piece of hull that suddenly came into view.
"Quick, close the door and get into a spacesuit." said
Rocket as they entered the airlock. Hanging from the walls
of the airlock were a collection of spacesuits that looked

like they had been collected from several different
sources. Rocket, Dick and Joanna picked out their
spacesuits and started putting them on. The ground shook
once more as all three of them hurried to get suited up.
The turret gunner spotted a small ship traveling at
high speed just out of range of his guns. Keeping the ship
in his sights he tracked it across his viewing area and, to
his delight, the ship turned towards him as if it was
setting up an attack run.
The air was released from the airlock and when the
pressure equalized with the outside atmosphere the outer
door opened and three figures ran from the opening. Dick
turned and looked back just in time to see the roof
collapse inside the airlock. What followed was a series of
small explosions all over the moon base as one corridor
after another collapsed in on itself. Standing around
outside the base were several figures in spacesuits, some
carried guns and others did not. It was obvious that there
was a mixture of guards and prisoners but that nobody could
tell who was who inside the spacesuits.
#
The turret gunner aimed a fired several laser blasts
at the small craft. One of the blasts caught the craft on
its side and it started to tumble end over end, obviously
out of control.
"Sir, the small craft is coming this way, it looks like it
will hit us!" screamed the junior officer on the bridge as
he looked out of one of the windows.
Inside the Captains ship it was chaos. The pilot was
still strapped into his seat trying hard to regain control
but fighting a losing battle. The Captain and his henchmen,
who were not strapped in, were struggling desperately to
get hold of parts of the ship to stop themselves from being
thrown around. The pilot looked out of the window and saw
the ghost ship getting larger and larger with each full
rotation of the crippled ship.
Dick looked up and saw the ghost ship hanging in the
sky. He also noticed a few flashes of light and pointed
them out to Rocket. The radios in their suits were not
functioning so Dick touched his helmet to Rockets helmet
and shouted, "Laser fire, I wonder what is going on?".
#
The Captains craft struck the ghost ship just below
the bridge and erupted in a ball of flame. The ship had
been packed with fuel for a long journey and almost all of
it exploded in that split second. A hole was torn in the
side of the ghost ship and the whole superstructure shook
from the blast. The explosion ruptured the floor of the
bridge and exposed the room to the vacuum of space.
"Look at that." said Dick as he saw the bright flash
of light emerge from the ghost ship. The ghost ship started
to roll slowly, it also started to dip its nose towards the
surface of the moon. Slowly, as if in a slow motion action
replay, the ship started to descend through the thin
atmosphere of the moon, heading for the surface. Parts of
the ship broke off as the atmosphere heated parts of the
damaged hull during its descent. The ghost ship disappeared
below the horizon and, seconds later, a large cloud of dust
emerged from the horizon. The impact of the ship could be
felt through the feet of the people standing on the moon as
a small earthquake.
About half an hour later the police ships from
Jupiter/Europa arrived and everybody began to be evacuated

from the small moon. Back on Jupiter/Europa Rocket and Dick
were surprised to find Chief Gundam waiting for them.
“I hear that you boys managed to destroy all of the
evidence in several large explosions.” said Chief Gundam,
“You also managed to destroy one long-range police escort
ship and lose several very expensive police issue
spacesuits. What have you boys got to say for yourself?”
“Not bad for a days work was it Dick?” said Rocket.
“Not when you consider that you signed the ship out using
the Chiefs name. I hope it was not too expensive Chief.”
said Dick with a big smile on his face.
END

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Gillman/Ghost Ship/1

Ian Gillman Word Count: 8300

"This is like watching grass grow." sighed Captain

John "Rocket" Robinson.

"I agree." replied Sergeant Richard "Dick" Clari. Since the

Interplanetary Operations division of the Earth Police

exciting case, the rest of the time was taken up with

were currently involved with. Escorting a freighter

containing expensive scientific equipment from the

manufacturer on Mars to the scientific base on

Ever since the early days of the solar system

colonization plan it was found that a naming system needed

to be used that did not require a degree in astronomy. It

was decided to use the name of the major planet when

talking about one of its moons to enable the average person

to understand where a particular moon was in the solar

"I am picking something up on the radar, it appears to

be a spaceship." said Dick while concentrating hard on the

scope. "It appears to be heading this way, they have no

transponder information, shall I try to get them on the

close they will come to the convoy."

"OK" Dick turned back to the console and picked up the

"SP200C to unidentified spacecraft traveling on a vector of

3,2,2 please identify yourself." The radio remained silent

for nearly a minute during which time Dick was busy

calculating movement vectors to work out if they were on a

collision course or not.

"This is Earth Police Force Interplanetary Operations ship

SP200C to unidentified spacecraft on vector 3,2,2

approaching convoy, identify yourself." said Dick becoming

a little more official. Once again the radio remained

silent. Dick finished the calculations and called again,

this time he sounded more threatening and forceful. While

he was waiting for a reply he spoke to Rocket.

"They are on a collision course with the convoy. I can't

on the lookout for this ship. Tell them to prepare to

execute emergency maneuvers."

we are going to go and have a look at that ship." he added.

"She's coming within visual range now." said Rocket as

he eased back on the throttle and activated the braking

rockets. "It looks like they might be in trouble, they have

no lights and they seem to be doing a slow tumble."

"They could also be smugglers trying to convince us they

are a lump of rock." said Dick.

"Get them on the radio, I can see their registration number

through the binoculars, tell them we know they are a

"SP200C to TK421, SP200C to TK421, come in TK421." The

radio remained silent, whoever was on board the spacecraft

clearly was not going to talk.

"Get the convoy on the radio Dick, tell them to carry on to

Saturn/Pandora, we are going to check this ship out and, if

possible, get on board, I am curious to know what is going

Rocket maneuvered the ship so that it was traveling

alongside the mysterious craft. They had passed through the

convoy a few minutes earlier and, due to the advanced

warning, had not had any problems.

"Grappling hooks attached." said Dick, a little

redundantly, the whole ship started to slowly tumble,

obeying the law of the conservation of angular momentum.

"OK, Dick, let's see who s on board." Rocket started

towards the airlock. Due to the tumbling of the other ship

Rocket could not align the airlocks and therefore it was

necessary to perform a space walk to get inside the other

ship. Rocket worked his way round to the airlock on the